Carrier aggregation capability reporting apparatus and method, and carrier measurement apparatus and method

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a carrier aggregation capability reporting apparatus and method, so as to prevent UE from repeatedly reporting capability information corresponding to a carrier combination supported by the UE, and reduce waste of signaling resources used for reporting. The method in the present invention includes: determining, by user equipment UE, information about a carrier combination supported by the UE and information about a sub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that is supported by the UE; and reporting, by the UE to a base station, the determined information about the carrier combination supported by the UE and the determined information about the sub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that is supported by the UE.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of International Application No.PCT/CN2015/087098, filed on Aug. 14, 2015, which claims priority toInternational Application No. PCT/CN2015/079067, filed on May 15, 2015.The disclosures of the aforementioned applications are herebyincorporated by reference in their entireties..

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to the field of wireless communications,and in particular, to a carrier aggregation capability reportingapparatus and method, and a carrier measurement apparatus and method.

BACKGROUND

A Long Term Evolution (LTE for short) system needs to providetransmission bandwidth of a maximum of 100 MHz, so that a downlinktransmission peak speed can reach 1 Gbps, and an uplink transmissionpeak speed can reach 500 Mbps. To resolve a scarcity of a contiguousspectrum of high bandwidth, a carrier aggregation (CA for short) schemeis proposed in the LTE system. Carrier aggregation means that two ormore component carriers (CC for short) are aggregated to support highertransmission bandwidth. Maximum transmission bandwidth may reach 100MHz.

At present, in the carrier aggregation scheme, user equipment (UE forshort) needs to report a carrier aggregation capability to a basestation. The carrier aggregation capability includes capabilityinformation of a carrier combination supported by the UE, and thecapability information may specifically include information such as aquantity and bandwidth of aggregation carriers in the carriercombination supported by the UE, whether the aggregation carriers arecontiguous carriers, and a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO forshort) capability corresponding to each carrier.

In an existing reporting mechanism, the UE needs to report informationabout each carrier combination supported by the UE to the base station,and indicate capability information corresponding to the carriercombination. If the UE supports a high-level aggregation capability, itcannot implicitly indicate that the UE supports a low-level aggregationcapability. Therefore, even if the UE separately reports informationabout two carrier combinations supported by the UE to the base station,and one carrier combination (corresponding to a low-level aggregationcapability) is a sub-combination of the other carrier combination(corresponding to a high-level aggregation capability), the UE stillneeds to perform reporting for each carrier combination. If the twocarrier combinations are corresponding to same capability information,the UE performs repeated reporting, and signaling resources used forreporting are wasted. For example, the UE supports BAND_A (twocontiguous carriers)+BAND_B (one carrier), but it cannot implicitlyindicate that the UE supports BAND_A (one contiguous carrier)+BAND_B(one carrier). BAND_A (one contiguous carrier)+BAND_B (one carrier) is asub-combination of BAND_A (two contiguous carriers)+BAND_B (one carrier)supported by the UE. If the UE supports BAND_A (one contiguouscarrier)+BAND_B (one carrier), the UE needs to separately report, to thebase station, information indicating that the UE supports BAND_A (onecontiguous carrier)+BAND_B (one carrier).

In the existing reporting mechanism, when the UE reports the capabilityinformation of the carrier combination supported by the UE to the basestation, the UE can report only the lowest capability in capabilitiescorresponding to carriers in the carrier combination because thecarriers in the carrier combination are corresponding to differentcapabilities, for example, different MIMO capabilities, or differentchannel state information (CSI for short) capabilities. The MIMOcapability is used as an example. If the carrier combination supportedby the UE includes two carriers, one carrier supports four-layer MIMO,and the other carrier supports eight-layer MIMO, the UE can report onlya four-layer MIMO capability. In this reporting mechanism, the basestation cannot thoroughly learn capabilities of carriers supported bythe UE.

In another prior art, the UE may report, in a first set (supported BandCombination, supported band combination) and a second set (supportedBand Combination Add, supported band combination add), a capability of acarrier combination supported by the UE. The capability of the carriercombination includes a single-carrier capability and a multi-carriercapability. Each element in the first set or the second set indicates,according to a first format, a carrier combination supported by the UEand a capability corresponding to the carrier combination, such as aMIMO capability or a CSI capability. For example, an element is acombination of a frequency band 1 and a frequency band 2, and in thecombination, the frequency band 1 supports aggregation of two carriers,and the frequency band 2 supports aggregation of two carriers. Only oneMIMO capability corresponding to the element is that four carriers eachsupport 2×2 MIMO, and a CSI capability corresponding to the element isthat CSI of each carrier supports two processes. When the UE receives acapability reporting request from the base station, if the request doesnot carry a reporting indication for a specific frequency band, the UEfills a carrier aggregation capability of the UE in the first set, andreports the carrier aggregation capability. If the first set cannotaccommodate all UE capabilities, the UE does not report a UE capabilitythat cannot be accommodated by the first set. If the request carries areporting indication for a specified frequency band, the UE first fills,in the first set, a carrier aggregation capability of the UE within arange of the specified frequency band. If the first set cannotaccommodate all UE capabilities within the range of the specifiedfrequency band, the UE fills a remaining capability in the second set,and reports the remaining capability. If the second set cannotaccommodate all the remaining UE capabilities, the UE does not report aUE capability that cannot be accommodated by the second set. At present,a UE capability is stored in a serving base station and an MME (mobilitymanagement entity) of the UE after being reported. After the UE moves,the serving base station or the MME transfers the UE capability to a newserving base station. In this reporting manner, a format of an elementin a set cannot be changed. If the format is changed, the UE capabilitycannot be reported by using the first set and the second set, andconsequently, evolution of the UE capability is limited.

When working in a carrier aggregation scenario, the UE measures afrequency of an aggregation carrier according to a measurement controlmessage delivered by a network side. Measurement may be classified intointra-frequency frequency measurement and inter-frequency frequencymeasurement according to different carriers on which measuredfrequencies are located. When a carrier on which a frequency measured bythe UE is located is different from a carrier on which a serving cell islocated, measurement performed by the UE is referred to as theinter-frequency frequency measurement. The UE performs theinter-frequency frequency measurement in a measurement gap configured bythe base station. In the measurement gap, the base station does notschedule the UE, and the UE temporarily interrupts communication withthe serving cell, and performs the inter-frequency frequencymeasurement. However, at present, when performing the inter-frequencyfrequency measurement, the UE is allowed to parallelly measure a maximumof three inter-frequencies. A quantity of frequencies measured by the UEis limited, and consequently, work efficiency of the UE is reduced.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present invention provide a carrier aggregationcapability reporting apparatus and method, so as to prevent UE fromrepeatedly reporting capability information corresponding to a carriercombination supported by the UE, and reduce waste of signaling resourcesused for reporting.

According to a first aspect, an embodiment of the present inventionprovides a carrier aggregation capability reporting apparatus,including:

a processing module, configured to determine information about a carriercombination supported by user equipment UE in which the apparatus islocated and information about a sub-combination that is of the carriercombination and that is supported by the UE; and

a transceiver module, configured to report, to a base station, theinformation about the carrier combination supported by the UE and theinformation about the sub-combination that is of the carrier combinationand that is supported by the UE, where the information about the carriercombination and the information about the sub-combination are determinedby the processing module.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first implementation,capability information of the sub-combination of the carrier combinationis the same as capability information of the carrier combination, andthe capability information includes a multiple-input multiple-outputMIMO capability and/or a channel state information CSI capability.

With reference to the first implementation of the first aspect, in asecond implementation of the first aspect,

the processing module is further configured to:

determine, in sub-combinations of the carrier combination that aresupported by the UE, a sub-combination that has different capabilityinformation from the capability information of the carrier combination,and determine information about the sub-combination and the capabilityinformation of the sub-combination; and

the transceiver module is further configured to:

separately report the information about the sub-combination and thecapability information of the sub-combination that are determined by theprocessing module to the base station.

With reference to the first aspect, in a third implementation, theapparatus further includes:

a storage module, configured to store a sequence number that ispredefined by the storage module and the base station and that iscorresponding to each sub-combination of the carrier combination, where

the processing module is further configured to:

according to the sequence number stored in the storage module,separately set, to a first value, a bit of a sequence numbercorresponding to a sub-combination that is of the carrier combinationand that is supported by the UE, and set, to a second value, a bit of asequence number corresponding to a sub-combination that is of thecarrier combination and that is not supported by the UE; and

when reporting the information, determined by the processing module,about the sub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that issupported by the UE to the base station, the transceiver module isspecifically configured to:

report bits that are set by the processing module to the base stationaccording to a sequence of sequence numbers corresponding to the bits.

With reference to the first aspect, in a fourth implementation, theapparatus further includes:

a storage module, configured to store a sequence number that ispredefined by the storage module and the base station and that iscorresponding to each sub-combination of the carrier combination, where

when reporting the information, determined by the processing module,about the sub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that issupported by the UE to the base station, the transceiver module isspecifically configured to:

report a sequence number corresponding to the sub-combination that is ofthe carrier combination and that is supported by the UE to the basestation according to the sequence number stored in the storage module.

According to a second aspect, an embodiment of the present inventionprovides a carrier aggregation capability reporting apparatus,including:

a processor, configured to determine information about a carriercombination supported by user equipment UE in which the apparatus islocated and information about a sub-combination that is of the carriercombination and that is supported by the UE; and

a transceiver, configured to report, to a base station, the informationabout the carrier combination supported by the UE and the informationabout the sub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that issupported by the UE, where the information about the carrier combinationand the information about the sub-combination are determined by theprocessor.

With reference to the second aspect, in a first implementation,capability information of the sub-combination of the carrier combinationis the same as capability information of the carrier combination, andthe capability information includes a multiple-input multiple-outputMIMO capability and/or a channel state information CSI capability.

With reference to the first implementation of the second aspect, in asecond implementation of the second aspect,

the processor is further configured to:

determine, in sub-combinations of the carrier combination that aresupported by the UE, a sub-combination that has different capabilityinformation from the capability information of the carrier combination,and determine information about the sub-combination and the capabilityinformation of the sub-combination; and

the transceiver is further configured to:

separately report the information about the sub-combination and thecapability information of the sub-combination that are determined by theprocessor to the base station.

With reference to the second aspect, in a third implementation, theapparatus further includes:

a memory, configured to store a sequence number that is predefined bythe memory and the base station and that is corresponding to eachsub-combination of the carrier combination, where

the processor is further configured to:

according to the sequence number stored in the memory, separately set,to a first value, a bit of a sequence number corresponding to asub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that is supportedby the UE, and set, to a second value, a bit of a sequence numbercorresponding to a sub-combination that is of the carrier combinationand that is not supported by the UE; and

when reporting the information, determined by the processor, about thesub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that is supportedby the UE to the base station, the transceiver is specificallyconfigured to:

report bits that are set by the processor to the base station accordingto a sequence of sequence numbers corresponding to the bits.

With reference to the second aspect, in a fourth implementation, theapparatus further includes:

a memory, configured to store a sequence number that is predefined bythe memory and the base station and that is corresponding to eachsub-combination of the carrier combination, where

when reporting the information, determined by the processor, about thesub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that is supportedby the UE to the base station, the transceiver is specificallyconfigured to:

report a sequence number corresponding to the sub-combination that is ofthe carrier combination and that is supported by the UE to the basestation according to the sequence number stored in the memory.

According to a third aspect, an embodiment of the present inventionprovides a carrier aggregation capability reporting method, including:

determining, by user equipment UE, information about a carriercombination supported by the UE and information about a sub-combinationthat is of the carrier combination and that is supported by the UE; and

reporting, by the UE to a base station, the determined information aboutthe carrier combination supported by the UE and the determinedinformation about the sub-combination that is of the carrier combinationand that is supported by the UE.

With reference to the third aspect, in a first implementation,capability information of the sub-combination of the carrier combinationis the same as capability information of the carrier combination, andthe capability information includes a multiple-input multiple-outputMIMO capability and/or a channel state information CSI capability.

With reference to the first implementation of the third aspect, in asecond implementation of the third aspect, the method further includes:

determining, by the UE in sub-combinations of the carrier combinationthat are supported by the UE, a sub-combination that has differentcapability information from the capability information of the carriercombination, and determining information about the sub-combination andthe capability information of the sub-combination; and

separately reporting, by the UE, the information about thesub-combination and the capability information of the sub-combination tothe base station.

With reference to the third aspect, in a third implementation, thereporting, by the UE, the determined information about thesub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that is supportedby the UE to a base station includes:

according to a sequence number that is predefined by the UE and the basestation and that is corresponding to each sub-combination of the carriercombination, separately setting, by the UE to a first value, a bit of asequence number corresponding to a sub-combination that is of thecarrier combination and that is supported by the UE, and setting, to asecond value, a bit of a sequence number corresponding to asub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that is notsupported by the UE; and

reporting, by the UE, specified bits to the base station according to asequence of sequence numbers corresponding to the bits.

With reference to the third aspect, in a fourth implementation, thereporting, by the UE, the determined information about thesub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that is supportedby the UE to a base station includes:

reporting, by the UE, a sequence number corresponding to thesub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that is supportedby the UE to the base station according to a sequence number that ispredefined by the UE and the base station and that is corresponding toeach sub-combination of the carrier combination.

In this embodiment, the UE reports, to the base station, the informationabout the carrier combination supported by the UE and the informationabout the sub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that issupported by the UE. The capability information corresponding to thecarrier combination supported by the UE is the same as the capabilityinformation corresponding to the sub-combination that is of the carriercombination and that is supported by the UE, and the UE may directlyreport the information about the sub-combination that is of the carriercombination and that is supported by the UE to the base station, anddoes not need to follow an existing reporting mechanism in which the UEneeds to perform reporting for each carrier combination supported by theUE, and indicate capability information corresponding to each carriercombination. Therefore, according to a technical solution provided inthis embodiment, a problem in the existing reporting mechanism that theUE repeatedly reports capability information corresponding to a carriercombination can be avoided, and waste of signaling resources used forreporting can be reduced.

The embodiments of the present invention provide a carrier aggregationcapability reporting method and apparatus, so that the UE reportscapability information corresponding to each carrier in the carriercombination supported by the UE to the base station.

According to a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present inventionprovides a carrier aggregation capability reporting apparatus,including:

a processing module, configured to determine capability informationcorresponding to each carrier in a carrier combination supported by userequipment UE in which the apparatus is located, where the capabilityinformation includes a multiple-input multiple-output MIMO capabilityand/or a channel state information CSI capability; and

a transceiver module, configured to report the capability informationthat is corresponding to each carrier and that is determined by theprocessing module to a base station.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a first implementation, theapparatus further includes:

a storage module, configured to store a sequence number predefined bythe storage module and the base station, where each predefined sequencenumber indicates a set including capability information corresponding toeach carrier in the carrier combination, where

when reporting the capability information that is corresponding to eachcarrier and that is determined by the processing module to the basestation, the transceiver module is specifically configured to:

report the capability information that is corresponding to each carrierand that is determined by the processing module to the base stationaccording to the sequence number stored in the storage module.

With reference to the first implementation of the fourth aspect, in asecond implementation of the fourth aspect, the sequence number that ispredefined by the memory and the base station and that is stored in thememory is included in a same list, and the list includes all setsincluding capability information corresponding to each carrier in thecarrier combination; or

the sequence number that is predefined by the memory and the basestation and that is stored in the memory is included in lists whosequantity is the same as a frequency band quantity of the carriercombination, and each list includes all sets including capabilityinformation corresponding to each carrier on a same frequency band.

With reference to the first or second implementation of the fourthaspect, in a third implementation of the fourth aspect,

the processing module is further configured to:

separately set, to a first value, a bit of a sequence numbercorresponding to a set including capability information that iscorresponding to each carrier and that is supported by the UE, and set,to a second value, a bit of a sequence number corresponding to a setincluding capability information that is corresponding to each carrierand that is not supported by the UE; and

when reporting the capability information that is corresponding to eachcarrier and that is determined by the processing module to the basestation according to the sequence number stored in the storage module,the transceiver module is specifically configured to:

report bits that are set by the processing module to the base stationaccording to a sequence of sequence numbers corresponding to the bits.

With reference to the first or second implementation of the fourthaspect, in a fourth implementation of the fourth aspect, when reportingthe capability information that is corresponding to each carrier andthat is determined by the processing module to the base stationaccording to the sequence number stored in the storage module, thetransceiver module is specifically configured to:

report, to the base station, a sequence number corresponding to a setincluding capability information that is corresponding to each carrierand that is supported by the UE and determined by the processing module.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a fifth implementation, thetransceiver module is further configured to:

receive carrier range information sent by the base station, where thecarrier range information is used for instructing the transceiver moduleto report the capability information corresponding to the carrier to thebase station, and the carrier range information includes at least onetype of the following information:

an aggregation carrier bandwidth range, an aggregation carrier type, oran aggregation carrier quantity range.

With reference to the fifth implementation of the fourth aspect, in asixth implementation of the fourth aspect, before receiving the carrierrange information sent by the base station, the transceiver module isfurther configured to:

report information about a maximum carrier aggregation capabilitysupported by the UE to the base station, where the information about themaximum carrier aggregation capability is used by the base station tosend the carrier range information to the transceiver module.

According to a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present inventionprovides a carrier aggregation capability reporting apparatus,including:

a processor, configured to determine capability informationcorresponding to each carrier in a carrier combination supported by userequipment UE in which the apparatus is located, where the capabilityinformation includes a multiple-input multiple-output MIMO capabilityand/or a channel state information CSI capability; and

a transceiver, configured to report the capability information that iscorresponding to each carrier and that is determined by the processor toa base station.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a first implementation, theapparatus further includes:

a memory, configured to store a sequence number predefined by the memoryand the base station, where each predefined sequence number indicates aset including capability information corresponding to each carrier inthe carrier combination, where

when reporting the capability information that is corresponding to eachcarrier and that is determined by the processor to the base station, thetransceiver is specifically configured to:

report the capability information that is corresponding to each carrierand that is determined by the processor to the base station according tothe sequence number stored in the memory.

With reference to the first implementation of the fifth aspect, in asecond implementation of the fifth aspect, the sequence number that ispredefined by the memory and the base station and that is stored in thememory is included in a same list, and the list includes all setsincluding capability information corresponding to each carrier in thecarrier combination; or

the sequence number that is predefined by the memory and the basestation and that is stored in the memory is included in lists whosequantity is the same as a frequency band quantity of the carriercombination, and each list includes all sets including capabilityinformation corresponding to each carrier on a same frequency band.

With reference to the first or second implementation of the fifthaspect, in a third implementation of the fifth aspect,

the processor is further configured to:

separately set, to a first value, a bit of a sequence numbercorresponding to a set including capability information that iscorresponding to each carrier and that is supported by the UE, and set,to a second value, a bit of a sequence number corresponding to a setincluding capability information that is corresponding to each carrierand that is not supported by the UE; and

when reporting the capability information that is corresponding to eachcarrier and that is determined by the processor to the base stationaccording to the sequence number stored in the memory, the transceiveris specifically configured to:

report bits that are set by the processor to the base station accordingto a sequence of sequence numbers corresponding to the bits.

With reference to the first or second implementation of the fifthaspect, in a fourth implementation of the fifth aspect, when reportingthe capability information that is corresponding to each carrier andthat is determined by the processor to the base station according to thesequence number stored in the memory, the transceiver is specificallyconfigured to:

report, to the base station, a sequence number corresponding to a setincluding capability information that is corresponding to each carrierand that is supported by the UE and determined by the processor.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a fifth implementation, thetransceiver is further configured to:

receive carrier range information sent by the base station, where thecarrier range information is used for instructing the transceiver toreport the capability information corresponding to the carrier to thebase station, and the carrier range information includes at least onetype of the following information:

an aggregation carrier bandwidth range, an aggregation carrier type, oran aggregation carrier quantity range.

With reference to the fifth implementation of the fifth aspect, in asixth implementation of the fifth aspect, before receiving the carrierrange information sent by the base station, the transceiver is furtherconfigured to:

report information about a maximum carrier aggregation capabilitysupported by the UE to the base station, where the information about themaximum carrier aggregation capability is used by the base station tosend the carrier range information to the transceiver.

According to a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present inventionprovides a carrier aggregation capability reporting method, including:

determining, by user equipment UE, capability information correspondingto each carrier in a carrier combination supported by the UE, where thecapability information includes a multiple-input multiple-output MIMOcapability and/or a channel state information CSI capability; and

reporting, by the UE to a base station, the determined capabilityinformation corresponding to each carrier.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in a first implementation, thereporting, by the UE to a base station, the determined capabilityinformation corresponding to each carrier includes:

reporting, by the UE, the capability information corresponding to eachcarrier in the carrier combination supported by the UE to the basestation according to a sequence number predefined by the UE and the basestation, where each predefined sequence number indicates a set includingcapability information corresponding to each carrier in the carriercombination.

With reference to the first implementation of the sixth aspect, in asecond implementation of the sixth aspect, the sequence numberpredefined by the UE and the base station is included in a same list,and the list includes all sets including capability informationcorresponding to each carrier in the carrier combination; or

the sequence number predefined by the UE and the base station isincluded in lists whose quantity is the same as a frequency bandquantity of the carrier combination, and each list includes all setsincluding capability information corresponding to each carrier on a samefrequency band.

With reference to the first or second implementation of the sixthaspect, in a third implementation of the sixth aspect, the reporting, bythe UE, the capability information corresponding to each carrier in thecarrier combination supported by the UE to the base station according toa sequence number predefined by the UE and the base station includes:

separately setting, by the UE to a first value, a bit of a sequencenumber corresponding to a set including capability information that iscorresponding to each carrier and that is supported by the UE, andsetting, to a second value, a bit of a sequence number corresponding toa set including capability information that is corresponding to eachcarrier and that is not supported by the UE; and

reporting, by the UE, specified bits to the base station according to asequence of sequence numbers corresponding to the bits.

With reference to the first or second implementation of the sixthaspect, in a fourth implementation of the sixth aspect, the reporting,by the UE, the capability information corresponding to each carrier inthe carrier combination supported by the UE to the base stationaccording to a sequence number predefined by the UE and the base stationincludes:

reporting, by the UE to the base station, a sequence numbercorresponding to a set including capability information that iscorresponding to each carrier and that is supported by the UE.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in a fifth implementation, themethod further includes:

receiving, by the UE, carrier range information sent by the basestation, where the carrier range information is used for instructing theUE to report the capability information corresponding to the carrier tothe base station, and the carrier range information includes at leastone type of the following information:

an aggregation carrier bandwidth range, an aggregation carrier type, oran aggregation carrier quantity range.

With reference to the fifth implementation of the sixth aspect, in asixth implementation of the sixth aspect, before the receiving, by theUE, carrier range information sent by the base station, the methodfurther includes:

reporting, by the UE, information about a maximum carrier aggregationcapability supported by the UE to the base station, where theinformation about the maximum carrier aggregation capability is used bythe base station to send the carrier range information to the UE.

In this embodiment, the UE reports the determined capability informationcorresponding to each carrier in the carrier combination to the basestation, so that the base station can thoroughly learn the capabilityinformation corresponding to each carrier in the carrier combinationsupported by the UE. By means of predefining performed by the UE and thebase station, content of capability information that is corresponding toa carrier and that is reported by the UE to the base station issimplified, so that reporting signaling overheads are reduced. The UEreports, according to the carrier range information sent by the basestation, the capability information corresponding to the carrier to thebase station, and the UE does not need to report capability informationcorresponding to all carriers supported by the UE to the base station,so that reporting signaling waste is avoided.

The embodiments of the present invention provide a carrier measurementmethod and apparatus, so that UE parallelly measures allinter-frequencies in a carrier combination supported by the UE, and aquantity of inter-frequencies that are in the carrier combinationsupported by the UE and that are parallelly measured by the UE isincreased.

According to a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present inventionprovides a carrier measurement apparatus, including:

a transceiver module, configured to: report indication information to abase station, where the indication information is used to indicate thatuser equipment UE in which the apparatus is located supports parallelmeasurement performed in a measurement gap on inter-frequencies of acarrier in carrier aggregation supported by the UE; and receivemeasurement configuration information that is sent by the base stationaccording to the indication information and that includes theinter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregation supported bythe UE; and

a processing module, configured to parallelly measure, in themeasurement gap according to the measurement configuration informationreceived by the transceiver module, the inter-frequencies of the carrierin the carrier aggregation supported by the UE.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in a first implementation, whenreceiving the measurement configuration information that is sent by thebase station according to the indication information and that includesthe inter-frequencies of the carrier within the carrier aggregationrange supported by the UE, the transceiver module is specificallyconfigured to:

receive a radio resource control RRC reconfiguration message sent by thebase station, where the RRC reconfiguration message carries themeasurement configuration information that is sent by the base stationaccording to the indication information and that is of theinter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregation supported bythe UE.

According to an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present inventionprovides a carrier measurement apparatus, including:

a transceiver, configured to: report indication information to a basestation, where the indication information is used to indicate that userequipment UE in which the apparatus is located supports parallelmeasurement performed in a measurement gap on inter-frequencies of acarrier in carrier aggregation supported by the UE; and receivemeasurement configuration information that is sent by the base stationaccording to the indication information and that includes theinter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregation supported bythe UE; and

a processor, configured to parallelly measure, in the measurement gapaccording to the measurement configuration information received by thetransceiver, the inter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrieraggregation supported by the UE.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in a first implementation, whenreceiving the measurement configuration information that is sent by thebase station according to the indication information and that includesthe inter-frequencies of the carrier within the carrier aggregationrange supported by the UE, the transceiver is specifically configuredto:

receive a radio resource control RRC reconfiguration message sent by thebase station, where the RRC reconfiguration message carries themeasurement configuration information that is sent by the base stationaccording to the indication information and that is of theinter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregation supported bythe UE.

According to a ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present inventionprovides a carrier measurement method, including:

reporting, by user equipment UE to a base station, indicationinformation used to indicate that the UE supports parallel measurementperformed in a measurement gap on inter-frequencies of a carrier incarrier aggregation supported by the UE;

receiving, by the UE, measurement configuration information that is sentby the base station according to the indication information and thatincludes the inter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregationsupported by the UE; and

parallelly measuring, by the UE in the measurement gap according to thereceived measurement configuration information, the inter-frequencies ofthe carrier in the carrier aggregation supported by the UE.

With reference to the ninth aspect, in a first implementation, thereceiving, by the UE, measurement configuration information that is sentby the base station according to the indication information and thatincludes the inter-frequencies of the carrier within the carrieraggregation range supported by the UE includes:

receiving, by the UE, a radio resource control RRC reconfigurationmessage sent by the base station, where the RRC reconfiguration messagecarries the measurement configuration information that is sent by thebase station according to the indication information and that is of theinter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregation supported bythe UE.

According to a tenth aspect, an embodiment of the present inventionprovides a carrier measurement apparatus, including:

a transceiver module, configured to receive indication informationreported by user equipment UE, where the indication information is usedto indicate that the UE supports parallel measurement performed in ameasurement gap on inter-frequencies of a carrier in carrier aggregationsupported by the UE; and

a processing module, configured to determine, according to theindication information received by the transceiver module, measurementconfiguration information of the inter-frequencies of the carrier in thecarrier aggregation supported by the UE, where

the transceiver module is further configured to send the measurementconfiguration information determined by the processing module to the UE.

With reference to the tenth aspect, in a first implementation, whensending the measurement configuration information determined by theprocessing module to the UE, the transceiver module is specificallyconfigured to:

send a radio resource control RRC reconfiguration message to the UE,where the RRC reconfiguration message carries the measurementconfiguration information.

According to an eleventh aspect, an embodiment of the present inventionprovides a carrier measurement apparatus, including:

a transceiver, configured to receive indication information reported byuser equipment UE, where the indication information is used to indicatethat the UE supports parallel measurement performed in a measurement gapon inter-frequencies of a carrier in carrier aggregation supported bythe UE; and

a processor, configured to determine, according to the indicationinformation received by the transceiver, measurement configurationinformation of the inter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrieraggregation supported by the UE, where

the transceiver is further configured to send the measurementconfiguration information determined by the processor to the UE.

With reference to the eleventh aspect, in a first implementation, whensending the measurement configuration information determined by theprocessor to the UE, the transceiver is specifically configured to:

send a radio resource control RRC reconfiguration message to the UE,where the RRC reconfiguration message carries the measurementconfiguration information.

According to a twelfth aspect, an embodiment of the present inventionprovides a carrier measurement method, including:

receiving, by a base station, indication information reported by userequipment UE for indicating that the UE supports parallel measurementperformed in a measurement gap on inter-frequencies of a carrier incarrier aggregation supported by the UE;

determining, by the base station according to the indicationinformation, measurement configuration information of theinter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregation supported bythe UE; and

sending, by the base station, the measurement configuration informationto the UE.

With reference to the twelfth aspect, in a first implementation, thesending, by the base station, the measurement configuration informationto the UE includes:

sending, by the base station, a radio resource control RRCreconfiguration message to the UE, where the RRC reconfiguration messagecarries the measurement configuration information.

In this embodiment, the UE sends, to the base station, the indicationinformation used to indicate that the UE supports the parallelmeasurement performed on the inter-frequencies of the carrier in thecarrier aggregation. The base station determines the measurementconfiguration information of the inter-frequencies of the carrier in thecarrier aggregation of the UE according to the indication information,and then the base station sends the measurement configurationinformation to the UE. The UE parallelly measures the inter-frequenciesof the carrier in the carrier aggregation in the measurement gapaccording to the measurement configuration information. The measurementconfiguration information includes information about theinter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregation. Therefore,the UE can parallelly measure all inter-frequencies in the carrieraggregation supported by the UE, so as to prevent the UE from parallellymeasuring, in an existing measurement mechanism, only threeinter-frequencies in the carrier aggregation supported by the UE.According to a technical method in this embodiment, a quantity ofinter-frequencies that are in the carrier aggregation supported by theUE and that are parallelly measured by the UE can be increased.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic architecture diagram of an LTE communicationssystem according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2(a) is a schematic diagram of aggregation of two contiguouscarriers on a same frequency band according to an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2(b) is a schematic diagram of aggregation of two non-contiguouscarriers on a same frequency band according to an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2(c) is a schematic diagram of aggregation of two componentcarriers on different frequency bands according to an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic flowchart of a carrier aggregation capabilityreporting method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a carrier aggregationcapability reporting apparatus according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a carrier aggregationcapability reporting apparatus according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic flowchart of a carrier aggregation capabilityreporting method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a carrier aggregationcapability reporting apparatus according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a carrier aggregationcapability reporting apparatus according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic flowchart of a carrier measurement methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of measuring inter-frequencies of acarrier in carrier aggregation supported by UE according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a carrier measurementapparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a carrier measurementapparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a schematic flowchart of a carrier measurement methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a carrier measurementapparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 15 is a schematic structural diagram of a carrier measurementapparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The following clearly describes the technical solutions in theembodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanyingdrawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Apparently, thedescribed embodiments are merely some but not all of the embodiments ofthe present invention. All other embodiments obtained by persons ofordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments of the presentinvention without creative efforts shall fall within the protectionscope of the present invention.

The technical solutions in the present invention may be applied tovarious communications systems such as a Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM for short), a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMAfor short) system, a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA forshort) system, a general packet radio service (GPRS for short) system, aLong Term Evolution (LTE for short) system, and a Universal MobileTelecommunications System (UMTS for short). This is not limited in thepresent invention.

In the embodiments of the present invention, user equipment (UE forshort) may also be referred to as a mobile terminal, mobile userequipment, and the like, and may communicate with one or more corenetwork devices via a radio access network (RAN for short). The UE maybe a mobile terminal, such as a mobile phone (also referred to as a“cellular” phone) and a computer with a mobile terminal. For example,the UE may be a portable, pocket-sized, handheld, computer built-in, orin-vehicle mobile apparatus that exchanges a voice and/or data with theradio access network. This is not limited in the present invention.

A base station has a function of receiving and sending data. Acorresponding sending device and receiving device may be UE, a basestation controller, a core network device, and a master eNodeB. This isnot limited in the present invention. The base station may be a basetransceiver station (BTS for short) in a GSM or CDMA, or may be a NodeB(NodeB) in WCDMA, or may be an evolved NodeB (eNB for short) in LTE.This is not limited in the present invention. The base station includescontrol nodes of various access network nodes, for example, a radionetwork controller (RNC for short) in a UMTS, or a controller thatmanages multiple small cells.

In the embodiments of the present invention, an LTE communicationssystem is used as an example, but this is not limited herein. As shownin FIG. 1, in a schematic architecture diagram of the LTE communicationssystem, a wireless communications network 100 may include at least onebase station 110 and a core network device 130, to support communicationof UE 120. For example, the base station 110 may be an eNB in LTE, andthe base station 110 may support or manage one or more cells. The corenetwork device 130 may include a mobility management entity (MME forshort).

The technical solutions in the present invention relate a carrieraggregation technology. Carrier aggregation means that two or morecomponent carriers (CC for short) are aggregated to support highertransmission bandwidth. Maximum transmission bandwidth of each componentcarrier is 20 MHz, and the maximum transmission bandwidth may reach 100MHz by using the carrier aggregation technology. As shown in FIG. 2(a),FIG. 2(b), and FIG. 2(c), the carrier aggregation technology supportsaggregation of different types of component carriers. FIG. 2(a) showsaggregation of two contiguous component carriers on a same frequencyband: a component carrier 1 and a component carrier 2. FIG. 2(b) showsaggregation of two non-contiguous carriers on a same frequency band: acomponent carrier 1 and a component carrier 2. FIG. 2(c) showsaggregation of two component carriers on different frequency bands: acomponent carrier 1 and a component carrier 2, and a frequency band onwhich the component carrier 1 is located is a frequency band A, and afrequency band on which the component carrier 2 is located is afrequency band B.

Embodiment 1

As shown in FIG. 3, this embodiment of the present invention provides acarrier aggregation capability reporting method, and the method includesthe following steps:

S301. User equipment UE determines information about a carriercombination supported by the UE and information about a sub-combinationthat is of the carrier combination and that is supported by the UE.

S302. The UE reports, to a base station, the determined informationabout the carrier combination supported by the UE and the determinedinformation about the sub-combination that is of the carrier combinationand that is supported by the UE.

In this embodiment, the information that is determined by the UE andthat is about the carrier combination supported by the UE may includeinformation such as a carrier aggregation band class on each frequencyband of the carrier combination, a MIMO capability corresponding to thecarrier aggregation band class on each frequency band, and a CSIcapability corresponding to the carrier aggregation band class on eachfrequency band. The carrier aggregation band class includes a downlinkcarrier aggregation band class and an uplink carrier aggregation bandclass. The carrier aggregation band class further includes a carrierquantity and total carrier bandwidth.

For example, the UE supports a carrier combination BAND_A (DL Class B,UL Class A)+BAND_B (DL Class B). BAND_A (DL Class B, UL Class A)+BAND_B(DL Class B) indicates aggregation of a frequency band A and a frequencyband B. The frequency band A includes downlink carrier aggregation of aband class B and uplink carrier aggregation of a band class A. Thefrequency band B includes downlink carrier aggregation of a band classB. Total bandwidth and carrier quantities corresponding to differentcarrier aggregation band classes are shown in Table 1.

TABLE 1 Carrier aggregation Carrier band class Total bandwidth quantityA N_(RB,agg) ≤ 100 1 B  25 < N_(RB,agg) ≤ 100 2 C 100 < N_(RB,agg) ≤ 2002 D 200 < N_(RB,agg) ≤ 300 3 E 300 < N_(RB,agg) ≤ 400 4 F 400 <N_(RB,agg) ≤ 500 5

In this embodiment, the sub-combination of the carrier combination is acarrier combination that includes different carrier aggregation bandclasses on each frequency band of the carrier combination. A carriercombination BAND_A (DL Class B, UL Class A)+BAND_B (DL Class B, UL ClassA) is used as an example. A sub-combination of the carrier combinationBAND_A (DL Class B, UL Class A)+BAND_B (DL Class B, UL Class A) is shownin Table 2. BAND_A (DL Class B, UL Class A)+BAND_B (DL Class B, UL ClassA) is an original carrier combination in Table 2.

TABLE 2 Sequence number corresponding to a sub-combination BAND A BAND BDescription 1 DL Class B, DL Class B One uplink carrier fewer than ULClass A BAND_B in the original carrier combination 2 DL Class B DL ClassB, One uplink carrier fewer than UL Class A BAND_A in the originalcarrier combination 3 DL Class B, — With no carrier on BAND_B UL Class Ain the original carrier combination 4 — DL Class B, With no carrier onBAND_A UL Class A in the original carrier combination 5 DL Class B, ULClass A One downlink carrier fewer than UL Class A BAND_B in theoriginal carrier combination 6 UL Class A DL Class B, One downlinkcarrier fewer than UL Class A BAND_A in the original carrier combination7 UL Class A UL Class A One downlink carrier fewer than BAND_B in theoriginal carrier combination and one downlink carrier fewer than BAND_Ain the original carrier combination 8 — UL Class A One downlink carrierfewer than BAND_B in the original carrier combination and with nocarrier on BAND_A in the original carrier combination 9 UL Class A —With no carrier on BAND_B in the original carrier combination and onedownlink carrier fewer than BAND_A in the original carrier combination

In this embodiment, if the UE supports a sub-combination of the carriercombination, and capability information corresponding to thesub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that is supportedby the UE is the same as capability information corresponding to thecarrier combination supported by the UE, the UE may directly reportinformation about the sub-combination that is of the carrier combinationand that is supported by the UE to the base station. If the UE supportsa sub-combination of the carrier combination, but capability informationcorresponding to the sub-combination that is of the carrier combinationand that is supported by the UE is different from capability informationcorresponding to the carrier combination supported by the UE, the UE mayseparately report information about the sub-combination that is of thecarrier combination and that is supported by the UE to the base station,and report the capability information corresponding to thesub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that is supportedby the UE to the base station.

Optionally, the UE may report the information about the sub-combinationthat is of the carrier combination and that is supported by the UE tothe base station by using the following two implementations.

In a first implementation, the UE and the base station predefine asequence number (for example, Table 2) corresponding to eachsub-combination of the carrier combination, and the UE and the basestation predefine that when a bit of a sequence number corresponding toa sub-combination is set to a first value, it indicates that the UEsupports the sub-combination, and capability information correspondingto the sub-combination is the same as the capability informationcorresponding to the original carrier combination of thesub-combination; and when a bit of a sequence number corresponding to asub-combination is set to a second value, it indicates that the UE doesnot support the sub-combination.

For any sub-combination of the carrier combination supported by the UE,when the UE determines that the UE supports the sub-combination, andcapability information corresponding to the sub-combination is the sameas the capability information corresponding to the original carriercombination of the sub-combination, a bit of a sequence numbercorresponding to the sub-combination is set to the first value; and whenthe UE determines that the UE does not support the sub-combination, abit of a sequence number corresponding to the sub-combination is set tothe second value. Then the UE reports specified bits to the base stationaccording to a sequence of sequence numbers corresponding to the bits.If the UE supports a sub-combination of the carrier combination, butcapability information corresponding to the sub-combination that is ofthe carrier combination and that is supported by the UE is differentfrom the capability information corresponding to the carrier combinationsupported by the UE, the UE may separately report information about thesub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that is supportedby the UE to the base station, and report the capability informationcorresponding to the sub-combination that is of the carrier combinationand that is supported by the UE to the base station.

With reference to Table 2, for example, the first value is 1 and thesecond value is 0. When the specified bits reported by the UE to thebase station are 111100011, the base station may learn from Table 2predefined by the base station and the UE that the UE supportssub-combinations separately corresponding to sequence numbers 1, 2, 3,4, 8, and 9 in Table 2, capability information separately correspondingto the sub-combinations is the same as capability informationcorresponding to the original carrier combination BAND_A (DL Class B, ULClass A)+BAND_B (DL Class B, UL Class A), and the UE does not supportsub-combinations separately corresponding to sequence numbers 5, 6, and7 in Table 2. In this way, the UE can report the information about thesub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that is supportedby the UE to the base station. Therefore, a prior-art problem that theUE repeatedly reports a carrier combination supported by the UE and asub-combination of the carrier combination is avoided, and reportingsignaling overheads are reduced.

In a second implementation, the UE and the base station predefine asequence number (for example, Table 2) corresponding to eachsub-combination of the carrier combination. The UE reports a sequencenumber corresponding to a sub-combination that is of the carriercombination and that is supported by the UE to the base station. Forexample, after determining that the UE supports sub-combinationsseparately corresponding to sequence numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, and 9 inTable 2, the UE reports 123489 to the base station. After receiving thismessage, the base station may learn from Table 2 predefined by the basestation and the UE that the UE supports the sub-combinations separatelycorresponding to the sequence numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, and 9 in Table 2.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment, the sequence number that ispredefined by the UE and the base station and that is corresponding to asub-combination of the carrier combination is not limited to a form inTable 2, and may be in another form. The first value and the secondvalue predefined by the UE and the base station are not limited tovalues provided in this embodiment, and may be other values.

In this embodiment, optionally, after the UE reports the determinedinformation about the carrier combination supported by the UE to thebase station, the UE and the base station may consider by default thatthe UE supports all sub-combinations of the carrier combination, andcapability information corresponding to each of the all sub-combinationsis the same as the capability information corresponding to the carriercombination. When the UE determines that capability informationcorresponding to a sub-combination supported by the UE is different fromthe capability information corresponding to the carrier combination, theUE may separately report information about the sub-combination supportedby the UE to the base station, and report the capability informationcorresponding to the sub-combination to the base station. Optionally,the UE may receive indication information sent by the base station, andthe indication information is used to indicate that the UE and the basestation consider by default that the UE supports all sub-combinations ofthe carrier combination supported by the UE. After the UE reports theinformation about the carrier combination supported by the UE to thebase station, the UE and the base station may consider, by default basedon the received indication information, that the UE supports all thesub-combinations of the carrier combination supported by the UE.

It should be noted that a manner of reporting, by the UE, theinformation about the sub-combination that is of the carrier combinationand that is supported by the UE to the base station is not limited tothe manner provided in this embodiment, and may be in another form.

As shown in FIG. 4, this embodiment of the present invention provides acarrier aggregation capability reporting apparatus, and the apparatusincludes:

a processing module 401, configured to determine information about acarrier combination supported by user equipment UE in which theapparatus is located and information about a sub-combination that is ofthe carrier combination and that is supported by the UE; and

a transceiver module 402, configured to report, to a base station, theinformation about the carrier combination supported by the UE and theinformation about the sub-combination that is of the carrier combinationand that is supported by the UE, where the information about the carriercombination and the information about the sub-combination are determinedby the processing module 401.

Optionally, capability information of the sub-combination of the carriercombination is the same as capability information of the carriercombination, and the capability information includes a multiple-inputmultiple-output MIMO capability and/or a channel state information CSIcapability.

Optionally, the processing module 401 is further configured to:

determine, in sub-combinations of the carrier combination that aresupported by the UE, a sub-combination that has different capabilityinformation from the capability information of the carrier combination,and determine information about the sub-combination and the capabilityinformation of the sub-combination.

The transceiver module 402 is further configured to:

separately report the information about the sub-combination and thecapability information of the sub-combination that are determined by theprocessing module 401 to the base station.

Optionally, the apparatus further includes:

a storage module 403, configured to store a sequence number that ispredefined by the storage module 403 and the base station and that iscorresponding to each sub-combination of the carrier combination.

The processing module 401 is further configured to:

according to the sequence number stored in the storage module 403,separately set, to a first value, a bit of a sequence numbercorresponding to a sub-combination that is of the carrier combinationand that is supported by the UE, and set, to a second value, a bit of asequence number corresponding to a sub-combination that is of thecarrier combination and that is not supported by the UE.

When reporting the information, determined by the processing module 401,about the sub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that issupported by the UE to the base station, the transceiver module 402 isspecifically configured to:

report bits that are set by the processing module 401 to the basestation according to a sequence of sequence numbers corresponding to thebits.

Optionally, the apparatus further includes:

a storage module 403, configured to store a sequence number that ispredefined by the storage module 403 and the base station and that iscorresponding to each sub-combination of the carrier combination.

When reporting the information, determined by the processing module 401,about the sub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that issupported by the UE to the base station, the transceiver module 402 isspecifically configured to:

report a sequence number corresponding to the sub-combination that is ofthe carrier combination and that is supported by the UE to the basestation according to the sequence number stored in the storage module403.

As shown in FIG. 5, this embodiment of the present invention provides acarrier aggregation capability reporting apparatus, and the apparatusincludes:

a processor 501, configured to determine information about a carriercombination supported by user equipment UE in which the apparatus islocated and information about a sub-combination that is of the carriercombination and that is supported by the UE; and

a transceiver 502, configured to report, to a base station, theinformation about the carrier combination supported by the UE and theinformation about the sub-combination that is of the carrier combinationand that is supported by the UE, where the information about the carriercombination and the information about the sub-combination are determinedby the processor 501.

Optionally, capability information of the sub-combination of the carriercombination is the same as capability information of the carriercombination, and the capability information includes a multiple-inputmultiple-output MIMO capability and/or a channel state information CSIcapability.

Optionally, the processor 501 is further configured to:

determine, in sub-combinations of the carrier combination that aresupported by the UE, a sub-combination that has different capabilityinformation from the capability information of the carrier combination,and determine information about the sub-combination and the capabilityinformation of the sub-combination.

The transceiver 502 is further configured to:

separately report the information about the sub-combination and thecapability information of the sub-combination that are determined by theprocessor 501 to the base station.

Optionally, the apparatus further includes:

a memory 503, configured to store a sequence number that is predefinedby the memory 503 and the base station and that is corresponding to eachsub-combination of the carrier combination.

The processor 501 is further configured to:

according to the sequence number stored in the memory 503, separatelyset, to a first value, a bit of a sequence number corresponding to asub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that is supportedby the UE, and set, to a second value, a bit of a sequence numbercorresponding to a sub-combination that is of the carrier combinationand that is not supported by the UE.

When reporting the information, determined by the processor 501, aboutthe sub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that issupported by the UE to the base station, the transceiver 502 isspecifically configured to:

report bits that are set by the processor 501 to the base stationaccording to a sequence of sequence numbers corresponding to the bits.

Optionally, the apparatus further includes:

a memory 503, configured to store a sequence number that is predefinedby the memory 503 and the base station and that is corresponding to eachsub-combination of the carrier combination.

When reporting the information, determined by the processor 501, aboutthe sub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that issupported by the UE to the base station, the transceiver 502 isspecifically configured to:

report a sequence number corresponding to the sub-combination that is ofthe carrier combination and that is supported by the UE to the basestation according to the sequence number stored in the memory 503.

In this embodiment, the UE reports, to the base station, the informationabout the carrier combination supported by the UE and the informationabout the sub-combination that is of the carrier combination and that issupported by the UE. The capability information corresponding to thecarrier combination supported by the UE is the same as the capabilityinformation corresponding to the sub-combination that is of the carriercombination and that is supported by the UE, and the UE may directlyreport the information about the sub-combination that is of the carriercombination and that is supported by the UE to the base station, anddoes not need to follow an existing reporting mechanism in which the UEneeds to perform reporting for each carrier combination supported by theUE, and indicate capability information corresponding to each carriercombination. Therefore, according to a technical solution provided inthis embodiment, a problem in the existing reporting mechanism that theUE repeatedly reports capability information corresponding to a carriercombination can be avoided, and waste of signaling resources used forreporting can be reduced.

Embodiment 2

As shown in FIG. 6, this embodiment of the present invention provides acarrier aggregation capability reporting method, and the method includesthe following steps:

S601. User equipment UE determines capability information correspondingto each carrier in a carrier combination supported by the UE, where thecapability information includes a multiple-input multiple-output MIMOcapability and/or a CSI capability.

S602. The UE reports, to a base station, the determined capabilityinformation corresponding to each carrier.

In this embodiment, the capability information corresponding to eachcarrier may include the MIMO capability and/or the CSI capability, butis not limited thereto.

In this embodiment, the UE and the base station predefine a sequencenumber. Each predefined sequence number indicates a set includingcapability information corresponding to each carrier in the carriercombination supported by the UE. The UE reports the capabilityinformation corresponding to each carrier in the carrier combinationsupported by the UE to the base station according to the predefinedsequence number.

There may be the following two implementations for the sequence numberpredefined by the UE and the base station.

In a first implementation, the sequence number predefined by the UE andthe base station is included in a same list, and the list includes allsets including capability information corresponding to each carrier inthe carrier combination. That is, the carrier combination supported bythe UE is used as a whole, and a list is configured for the carriercombination. The list includes all sets including capability informationcorresponding to each carrier in the carrier combination. Each set iscorresponding to a sequence number. For example, the UE supports acarrier combination A, the carrier combination A includes a frequencyband 1 and a frequency band 2, the frequency band 1 and the frequencyband 2 include N carriers in total, and capability informationcorresponding to each carrier in the carrier combination A forms M sets.In this case, a sequence number list predefined by the UE and the basestation for the carrier combination A is shown in Table 3.

TABLE 3 Sequence number Carrier 1 Carrier 2 . . . Carrier N 1 SupportSupport . . . Support two-layer two-layer two-layer MIMO MIMO MIMOSupport a CSI 1 Support a CSI 1 Support a CSI 1 process process process2 Support Support Support four-layer four-layer four-layer MIMO MIMOMIMO Support a CSI 1 Support a CSI 1 Support a CSI 1 process processprocess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M Support Support Supporteight-layer eight-layer eight-layer MIMO MIMO MIMO Support a CSI 1Support a CSI 1 Support a CSI 1 process process process

In Table 3, capability information corresponding to each carrierincludes a MIMO capability and a CSI capability. In this embodiment, theUE and the base station may further predefine a sequence number for atype of capability information. For example, the UE performs predefiningfor a MIMO capability corresponding to a carrier. A list in which asequence number predefined by the UE and the base station is located isshown in Table 4.

TABLE 4 Sequence number Carrier 1 Carrier 2 . . . Carrier N 1 SupportSupport . . . Support two-layer two-layer two-layer MIMO MIMO MIMO 2Support Support Support four-layer four-layer four-layer MIMO MIMO MIMO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M Support Support Support eight-layereight-layer eight-layer MIMO MIMO MIMO

Likewise, capability information corresponding to the carrier mayfurther include a network-assisted interference cancellation andsuppression (NAICS for short) capability. Content and a type quantity ofcapability information corresponding to a carrier in the predefined listare not limited in this embodiment. In the first implementation, thelist predefined by the UE and the base station may include in detail allsets including capability information corresponding to each carrier inthe carrier combination, or may include only some pieces of typicalconfiguration information, so as to reduce a length of the table.

In a second implementation, the sequence number predefined by the UE andthe base station is included in lists whose quantity is the same as afrequency band quantity of the carrier combination, and each listincludes all sets including capability information corresponding to eachcarrier in a carrier band class of a same frequency band. That is, acarrier band class of each frequency band of the carrier combinationsupported by the UE is used as a whole. The carrier band class of eachfrequency band is corresponding to a list. The list includes all setsincluding capability information corresponding to each carrier of thecarrier band class of the frequency band, and each set is correspondingto a sequence number. For example, the UE supports a carrier combinationA, capability information includes a MIMO capability and a CSIcapability, and the carrier combination A includes a frequency band 1and a frequency band 2. A carrier band class of the frequency band 1 isB. It may be learned from Table 1 that the frequency band 1 has twocarriers, and capability information corresponding to each carrier onthe frequency band 1 forms six sets in total. A carrier band class ofthe frequency band 2 is E. It may be learned from Table 1 that thefrequency band 2 has four carriers, and capability informationcorresponding to each carrier on the frequency band 2 forms eight setsin total. In this case, sequence number lists predefined by the UE andthe base station for the frequency band 1 and the frequency band 2 areshown in Table 5 and Table 6, respectively.

TABLE 5 (carrier band class B) Sequence number Carrier 1 Carrier 2 1Support two-layer MIMO Support two-layer MIMO Support a CSI 1 processSupport a CSI 3 process 2 Support two-layer MIMO Support four-layer MIMOSupport a CSI 1 process Support a CSI 3 process 3 Support four-layerMIMO Support four-layer MIMO Support a CSI 1 process Support a CSI 3process 4 Support four-layer MIMO Support eight-layer MIMO Support a CSI1 process Support a CSI 2 process 5 Support eight-layer MIMO Supportfour-layer MIMO Support a CSI 1 process Support a CSI 2 process 6Support eight-layer MIMO Support eight-layer MIMO Support a CSI 1process Support a CSI 1 process

TABLE 6 (carrier band class E) Sequence number Carrier 1 Carrier 2Carrier 3 Carrier 4 1 Support two-layer Support Support Support MIMOtwo-layer MIMO two-layer MIMO two-layer MIMO Support a CSI 1 Support aCSI 1 Support a CSI 1 Support a CSI 2 process process process process 2Support two-layer Support Support Support MIMO two-layer MIMO four-layerMIMO four-layer MIMO Support a CSI 1 Support a CSI 1 Support a CSI 1Support a CSI 2 process process process process 3 Support four-layerSupport Support Support MIMO four-layer MIMO four-layer MIMO four-layerMIMO Support a CSI 1 Support a CSI 1 Support a CSI 1 Support a CSI 2process process process process 4 Support four-layer Support SupportSupport MIMO four-layer MIMO two-layer MIMO eight-layer Support a CSI 1Support a CSI 1 Support a CSI 1 MIMO process process process Support aCSI 2 process 5 Support two-layer Support Support Support MIMOfour-layer MIMO two-layer MIMO eight-layer Support a CSI 1 Support a CSI1 Support a CSI 1 MIMO process process process Support a CSI 2 process 6Support four-layer Support Support Support MIMO four-layer MIMOfour-layer MIMO eight-layer Support a CSI 1 Support a CSI 1 Support aCSI 1 MIMO process process process Support a CSI 2 process 7 Supportfour-layer Support Support Support MIMO four-layer MIMO eight-layereight-layer Support a CSI 1 Support a CSI 1 MIMO MIMO process processSupport a CSI 1 Support a CSI 1 process process 8 Support eight-layerSupport Support Support MIMO eight-layer eight-layer eight-layer Supporta CSI 1 MIMO MIMO MIMO process Support a CSI 1 Support a CSI 1 Support aCSI 1 process process process

Likewise, content and a type quantity of capability informationcorresponding to a carrier in the predefined list are not limited inthis embodiment. In the second implementation, two adjacent frequencybands may have consecutive sequence numbers. For example, the sequencenumbers in Table 6 may be successively 6 to 13.

In this embodiment, the UE may report the capability informationcorresponding to each carrier in the carrier combination supported bythe UE to the base station by using the following two implementationsaccording to the sequence number predefined by the UE and the basestation.

In a first implementation, the UE and the base station predefine asequence number corresponding to a set including capability informationcorresponding to each carrier in the carrier combination, and the UE andthe base station predefine that when a bit of a sequence number is setto a first value, it indicates that the UE supports capabilityinformation corresponding to each carrier in a set corresponding to thesequence number; and when a bit of a sequence number is set to a secondvalue, it indicates that the UE does not support capability informationcorresponding to each carrier in a set corresponding to the sequencenumber.

For any set including capability information corresponding to carriers,when determining that the UE supports capability informationcorresponding to each carrier in the set, the UE sets a bit of asequence number corresponding to the set to the first value; and whendetermining that the UE does not support capability informationcorresponding to each carrier in the set, the UE sets a bit of asequence number corresponding to the set to the second value. Then theUE reports specified bits to the base station according to a sequence ofsequence numbers corresponding to the bits.

For example, with reference to Table 3, if M is 9, the first value is 1,and the second value is 0, when the specified bits reported by the UE tothe base station are 111100011, the base station may learn from Table 3predefined by the base station and the UE that the UE supportscapability information corresponding to each carrier in sets separatelycorresponding to sequence numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, and 9 in Table 3, butthe UE does not support capability information corresponding to eachcarrier in sets separately corresponding to sequence numbers 5, 6, and 7in Table 3.

In a second implementation, the UE and the base station predefine asequence number corresponding to a set including capability informationcorresponding to each carrier in the carrier combination. The UE reportsa sequence number corresponding to a set including correspondingcapability information supported by the UE to the base station. Forexample, with reference to Table 3, it is assumed that M is 9. Afterdetermining that the UE supports capability information corresponding toeach carrier in sets separately corresponding to sequence numbers 1, 2,3, 4, 8, and 9 in Table 3, the UE reports 123489 to the base station.After receiving this message, the base station may learn from Table 3predefined by the base station and the UE that the UE supports thecapability information corresponding to each carrier in the setsseparately corresponding to the sequence numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, and 9 inTable 3.

It should be noted that a type of a set including capability informationcorresponding to each carrier and a sequence number corresponding to theset are not limited to content provided in this embodiment, and may beother content, where the type of the set and the sequence numbercorresponding to the set are predefined by the UE and the base station.The first value and the second value predefined by the UE and the basestation are not limited to values provided in this embodiment, and maybe other values.

In this embodiment, optionally, before reporting capability informationcorresponding to a carrier to the base station, the UE may receivecarrier range information sent by the base station. The carrier rangeinformation is used for instructing the UE to report the capabilityinformation corresponding to the carrier to the base station. Thecarrier range information includes at least one type of the followinginformation:

an aggregation carrier bandwidth range, an aggregation carrier type, oran aggregation carrier quantity range.

The aggregation carrier bandwidth range may include a bandwidth range ofaggregation of specified frequency bands or a total bandwidth range ofaggregation of all frequency bands. For example, the aggregation carrierbandwidth range included in the carrier range information sent by thebase station is as follows: A bandwidth range of a frequency band 1 is acarrier class B, or an upper bandwidth limit of the frequency band 1 is20 M, and when the UE reports capability information corresponding to acarrier on the frequency band 1, the UE needs to report only capabilityinformation corresponding to a carrier within the carrier class B on thefrequency band 1, or the UE needs to report only capability informationcorresponding to a carrier that has bandwidth within 20 M on thefrequency band 1.

The aggregation carrier type may include a licensed carrier or anunlicensed carrier. For example, the aggregation carrier type includedin the carrier range information sent by the base station is thelicensed carrier, and when reporting capability informationcorresponding to a carrier, the UE needs to report only capabilityinformation corresponding to the licensed carrier.

The aggregation carrier quantity range may include a carrier quantityrange of a specified aggregation frequency band, or a range of a sum ofcarrier data included in all aggregation frequency bands. For example,an upper limit of the carrier quantity range included in the carrierrange information sent by the base station is 10, and the UE needs toreport only capability information corresponding to a maximum of 10carriers. Alternatively, the base station requires the UE to reportcapability information corresponding to a maximum of 10 carriers on aspecified frequency band A, and the UE needs to report only capabilityinformation corresponding to a maximum of 10 carriers on the frequencyband A. Optionally, when reporting capability information, the UE addsthe carrier range information received from the base station to thecapability information, so that when the capability information istransferred to another base station, the another base station learnsthat the capability information is reported for a carrier range.Optionally, before the UE receives the carrier range information sent bythe base station, the UE reports information about a maximum carrieraggregation capability supported by the UE to the base station, and theinformation about the maximum carrier aggregation capability is used bythe base station to send the carrier range information to the UE.

In this way, the UE may report capability information corresponding to acarrier to the base station according to the carrier range informationsent by the base station. The UE does not need to report capabilityinformation corresponding to all carriers supported by the UE to thebase station, so that reporting signaling waste is avoided.

In an embodiment, before the UE reports capability informationcorresponding to a carrier to the base station, the UE receives acapability reporting request sent by the base station, and thecapability reporting request includes a first instruction. The UEreports, according to the first instruction by using a third set,determined capability information that is in capability informationcorresponding to each supported carrier combination and that meets afirst condition. The first condition includes a carrier combinationwhose UE carrier capability is within a preset range and/or a carriercombination whose frequency band is an unlicensed frequency band. Thethird set is a set different from a first set and a second set.

Specifically, the UE fills, in the first set, determined capabilityinformation that is in the capability information corresponding to eachsupported carrier combination and that does not meet the firstcondition, and reports the capability information; and fills, in thethird set, determined capability information that is in capabilityinformation corresponding to each carrier and that meets the firstcondition, and reports the capability information. Further, if thecapability information that does not meet the first condition exceeds amaximum quantity of the first set, remaining capability information thatdoes not meet the first set is filled in the third set and is reported.

The first instruction is an instruction for instructing the UE to reportthe third set or an instruction for instructing the UE to report a UEcapability that meets the first condition.

Specifically, the third set is also used for reporting a carrieraggregation capability supported by the UE. A format of an element inthe third set is different from a format of an element in the first setor the second set. The format of the element in the third set is a firstformat. The format of the element in the third set is more efficient,and can express more capabilities by using a smaller amount ofinformation. For example, in the first set and the second set, eachelement is corresponding to a carrier combination in a frequency bandcombination and a MIMO capability or a CSI capability corresponding tothe carrier combination. Each element can have only one MIMO/CSIcapability combination. Each element in the third set is correspondingto a carrier combination in a frequency band combination, and eachelement may indicate multiple MIMO/CSI capability combinations. Foranother example, an element in the third set may indicate that asub-combination corresponding to the element may also support acapability corresponding to the element. For example, if an element inthe third set is a sub-combination that supports three carriers on afrequency band 1 and whose MIMO capability supports 4×4 MIMO and whoseCSI capability supports two processes, it may also indicate that theelement supports the two carriers on the frequency band 1, a MIMOcapability of supporting 4×4 MIMO, and a CSI capability of supportingtwo processes. Therefore, an element in the third set can indicate amore complex capability, and more UE capability information may bereported by using a smaller quantity of elements. The carriercombination within the preset range includes a UE capability with aquantity of uplink carriers and/or downlink carriers that is greaterthan a specific quantity, for example, a carrier aggregation capabilitywith a quantity of downlink carriers that is greater than 5.

Further, that the UE determines to report, according to the firstinstruction by using a third set, UE capability information that meets afirst condition includes: The UE first fills the carrier aggregationcapability of the UE in the first set, and then fills a remainingcapability in the third set according to a format of the third set, andreports the remaining capability. Only a UE capability that does notmeet the first condition is filled in the first set, or a UE capabilitythat does not meet the first condition is preferentially filled in thefirst set.

Specifically, the UE first fills the carrier aggregation capability ofthe UE in the first set, fills the remaining capability in the third setaccording to the format of the third set, and reports the remainingcapability. Only the UE capability that does not meet the firstcondition is filled in the first set, or the UE capability that does notmeet the first condition is preferentially filled in the first set. Ifonly the UE capability that does not meet the first condition is filledin the first set, even if the first set has remaining space, a UEcapability that meets the first condition cannot be filled in the firstset, and the UE capability that meets the first condition can be filledonly in the third set. In this way, when a capability is transferredbetween base stations, a legacy base station uses only an element in theset 1, and a new base station uses an element in the set 1 and anelement in the set 3.

For example, the first set has a maximum of three elements, and thethird set has a maximum of 10 elements. UE capability information isshown in Table 8.

TABLE 8 Frequency First Second Third band frequency frequency frequencyMIMO CSI Index combination band band band capability capability 1Frequency Two Each carrier Each carrier band 1 carriers supports 2 × 2supports two MIMO CSI processes 2 Frequency Two Each carrier Eachcarrier band 2 carriers supports 2 × 2 supports two MIMO CSI processes 3Frequency band Two Each carrier Each carrier 3 (unlicensed carrierssupports 2 × 2 supports two frequency band) MIMO CSI processes 4Frequency band Two Two Each carrier Each carrier 1 + frequency carrierscarriers supports 2 × 2 supports two band 2 MIMO CSI processes 5Frequency band Two Two Each carrier Each carrier 1 + frequency carrierscarriers supports 2 × 2 supports two band 3 MIMO CSI processes 6Frequency band Two Two Each carrier Each carrier 2 + frequency carrierscarriers supports 2 × 2 supports two band 3 MIMO CSI processes 7Frequency band Two Two Two Each carrier Each carrier 1 + frequencycarriers carriers carriers supports 2 × 2 supports two band MIMO CSIprocesses 2 + frequency band 3 8 Frequency band Two Each carrier Eachcarrier 3 (unlicensed carriers supports 4 × 4 supports one frequencyband) MIMO CSI process

The third element belongs to an unlicensed frequency band, and cannot befilled in the first set. Therefore, the first, second, and fourthelements are filled in the first set. The third, fifth, sixth, seventh,and eighth elements are filled in the third set. The seventh and eighthelements are corresponding to same frequency bands and same carriercombination capabilities, and only MIMO/CSI capabilities are different.Therefore, the seventh and eighth elements can be combined into oneelement in the third set for reporting. In aggregation of two carrierson the frequency band 3, two MIMO/CSI capability combinations may besupported.

In another embodiment, the capability reporting request further carriesan indication of a frequency band range that needs to be reported. Thatthe UE reports, according to the first instruction by using a third set,determined capability information that is in capability informationcorresponding to each supported carrier combination and that meets afirst condition includes: The UE first fills, in the first set,capability information that is in the capability informationcorresponding to the frequency band range and that does not meet thefirst condition, and reports the capability information; if the firstset cannot accommodate the capability information, the UE fills aremaining capability in the second set, and reports the remainingcapability; and if the second set cannot accommodate the remainingcapability, the UE fills the remaining capability in the third setaccording to a format of the third set, and reports the remainingcapability. The UE fills, in the third set, determined capabilityinformation that is in capability information corresponding to eachcarrier and that meets the first condition, and reports the capabilityinformation.

Specifically, if the reporting request received by the UE furthercarries the indication of the frequency band range that needs to bereported, the UE first fills, in the first set, a carrier aggregationcapability of the UE within the frequency band range, and fills aremaining capability in the second set. If the second set cannotaccommodate the remaining capability, the UE fills the remainingcapability in the third set according to the format of the third set andreports the remaining capability. Only a UE capability that does notmeet the first condition is filled in the first set, or a UE capabilitythat does not meet the first condition is preferentially filled in thefirst set. If only the UE capability that does not meet the firstcondition is filled in the first set, even if the first set hasremaining space, a UE capability that meets the first condition cannotbe filled in the first set, and the UE capability that meets the firstcondition can be filled only in the third set. When capabilityinformation is transferred between base stations, a legacy base stationuses elements only in the set 1 and the set 2, and a new base stationuses elements in the set 1, the set 2, and the set 3.

For example, UE capability information is shown in Table 9.

TABLE 9 Frequency First Second Third band frequency frequency frequencyMIMO CSI Index combination band band band capability capability 1Frequency Two Each carrier Each carrier band 1 carriers supports 2 × 2supports two MIMO CSI processes 2 Frequency Six Each carrier Eachcarrier band 2 carriers supports 4 × 4 supports two MIMO CSI processes 3Frequency band Two Each carrier Each carrier 3 (unlicensed carrierssupports 2 × 2 supports two frequency band) MIMO CSI processes 4Frequency band Two Two Each carrier Each carrier 1 + frequency carrierscarriers supports 2 × 2 supports two band 2 MIMO CSI processes 5Frequency band Two Two Each carrier Each carrier 1 + frequency carrierscarriers supports 2 × 2 supports two band 3 MIMO CSI processes 6Frequency band Two Two Each carrier Each carrier 2 + frequency carrierscarriers supports 2 × 2 supports two band 3 MIMO CSI processes 7Frequency band Two Two Two Each carrier Each carrier 1 + frequencycarriers carriers carriers supports 2 × 2 supports two band MIMO CSIprocesses 2 + frequency band 3 8 Frequency band Two Three Each carrierEach carrier 1 + frequency carriers carriers supports 2 × 2 supports twoband 2 MIMO CSI processes 9 Frequency band Two Four Each carrier Eachcarrier 1 + frequency carriers carriers supports 2 × 2 supports one band2 MIMO CSI process 10 Frequency Two Four Each carrier Each carrier band5 carriers carriers supports 2 × 2 supports one MIMO CSI process 11Frequency band Two Three Each carrier Each carrier 1 + frequencycarriers carriers supports 4 × 2 supports two band 2 MIMO CSI processes12 Frequency band Two Two Each carrier Each carrier 1 + frequencycarriers carriers supports 4 × 2 supports two band 2 MIMO CSI processes

It is assumed that a combination that includes fewer than five carrierswithin a preset range is filled in the first set and the second set, thebase station requests the UE to report frequency bands 1, 2, and 3, anda maximum element quantity of the first set and the second set is three.When filling a capability, the UE first selects a capability that hasfewer than five carriers on a licensed frequency band, including 1, 4,and 8, to first fill the first set. Then the UE selects remainingcapabilities that have fewer than five carriers on the licensedfrequency band, including 11 and 12, to fill the second set. Then the UEfills, in the third set, remaining capabilities that belong to frequencybands 1, 2, and 3, including 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7are filled according to a format of the set 3, and may be combined intoa smaller quantity of elements.

Further, that the UE determines to report, according to the firstinstruction by using a third set, a UE capability that meets a firstcondition includes: The UE fills the carrier aggregation capability ofthe UE in the third set according to the format of the third set,reports the carrier aggregation capability of the UE, and does notreport the first set or the second set, so that the base stationgenerates the first set and/or the second set according to the thirdset, and reports the third set together with the first set and/or thesecond set to an MME.

Specifically, the UE does not fill the first set any longer, butdirectly fills the carrier aggregation capability of the UE in the thirdset according to the format of the third set, and reports the carrieraggregation capability of the UE to the base station. When a capabilityreported by the UE is transferred, by using a handover process or theMME, to a legacy base station that is incapable of identifying the thirdset, the legacy base station needs to re-request a UE capability, andthe UE re-reports an element in the set 1 or elements in the set 1 andthe set 2. To prevent the legacy base station from re-requestingreporting of the UE capability, the base station that receives the thirdset may generate a first set according to a format of the first set byusing some elements in the third set, and then reports a capabilityformed by combining the first set and the third set to the MME, ortransfers the capability to a target base station in the handoverprocess. In this way, a UE capability stored in the MME or the targetbase station includes the first set and the third set. Even if acapability is subsequently transferred to the legacy base station thatis incapable of identifying the third set, the legacy base station canparse a UE capability according to the first set in the UE capability,and does not need to request again the UE to report a capability.

As shown in FIG. 7, this embodiment of the present invention provides acarrier aggregation capability reporting apparatus, and the apparatusincludes:

a processing module 701, configured to determine capability informationcorresponding to each carrier in a carrier combination supported by userequipment UE in which the apparatus is located, where the capabilityinformation includes a multiple-input multiple-output MIMO capabilityand/or a channel state information CSI capability; and

a transceiver module 702, configured to report the capabilityinformation that is corresponding to each carrier and that is determinedby the processing module 701 to a base station.

Optionally, the apparatus further includes:

a storage module 703, configured to store a sequence number predefinedby the storage module 703 and the base station, where each predefinedsequence number indicates a set including capability informationcorresponding to each carrier in the carrier combination.

When reporting the capability information that is corresponding to eachcarrier and that is determined by the processing module 701 to the basestation, the transceiver module 702 is specifically configured to:

report the capability information that is corresponding to each carrierand that is determined by the processing module 701 to the base stationaccording to the sequence number stored in the storage module 703.

Optionally, the sequence number that is predefined by the storage module703 and the base station and that is stored in the storage module 703 isincluded in a same list, and the list includes all sets includingcapability information corresponding to each carrier in the carriercombination; or

the sequence number that is predefined by the storage module 703 and thebase station and that is stored in the storage module 703 is included inlists whose quantity is the same as a frequency band quantity of thecarrier combination, and each list includes all sets includingcapability information corresponding to each carrier on a same frequencyband.

Optionally, the processing module 701 is further configured to:

separately set, to a first value, a bit of a sequence numbercorresponding to a set including capability information that iscorresponding to each carrier and that is supported by the UE, and set,to a second value, a bit of a sequence number corresponding to a setincluding capability information that is corresponding to each carrierand that is not supported by the UE.

When reporting the capability information that is corresponding to eachcarrier and that is determined by the processing module 701 to the basestation according to the sequence number stored in the storage module703, the transceiver module 702 is specifically configured to:

report bits that are set by the processing module 701 to the basestation according to a sequence of sequence numbers corresponding to thebits.

Optionally, when reporting the capability information that iscorresponding to each carrier and that is determined by the processingmodule 701 to the base station according to the sequence number storedin the storage module 703, the transceiver module 702 is specificallyconfigured to:

report, to the base station, a sequence number corresponding to a setincluding capability information that is corresponding to each carrierand that is supported by the UE and determined by the processing module701.

Optionally, the transceiver module 702 is further configured to:

receive carrier range information sent by the base station, where thecarrier range information is used for instructing the transceiver module702 to report the capability information corresponding to the carrier tothe base station, and the carrier range information includes at leastone type of the following information:

an aggregation carrier bandwidth range, an aggregation carrier type, oran aggregation carrier quantity range.

Optionally, before receiving the carrier range information sent by thebase station, the transceiver module 702 is further configured to:

report information about a maximum carrier aggregation capabilitysupported by the UE to the base station, where the information about themaximum carrier aggregation capability is used by the base station tosend the carrier range information to the transceiver module 702.

In an embodiment, the transceiver module 702 is further configured toreceive a capability reporting request sent by the base station, and thecapability reporting request includes a first instruction. Theprocessing module 701 is further configured to: report, according to thefirst instruction by using a third set, determined capabilityinformation that is in capability information corresponding to eachsupported carrier combination and that meets a first condition, and thefirst condition includes a carrier combination whose UE carriercapability is within a preset range and/or a carrier combination whosefrequency band is an unlicensed frequency band. The third set is a setdifferent from a first set and a second set.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the processing module 701 includes:

a first processing unit, configured to: fill, in the first set,determined capability information that is in the capability informationcorresponding to each supported carrier combination and that does notmeet the first condition, and report the capability information; and

a second processing module, configured to: fill, in the third set,determined capability information that is in capability informationcorresponding to each carrier and that meets the first condition, andreport the capability information, where the second processing module isfurther configured to: if the capability information that does not meetthe first condition exceeds a maximum quantity of the first set, fill,in the third set, remaining capability information that does not meetthe first set, and report the remaining capability information.

In another embodiment, the capability reporting request further carriesan indication of a frequency band range that needs to be reported, andthe processing module 701 includes:

a first processing unit, configured to: fill, in the first set,capability information that is in the capability informationcorresponding to the frequency band range and that does not meet thefirst condition, and report the capability information;

a second processing unit, configured to: if the first set cannotaccommodate the capability information, fill a remaining capability inthe second set and report the remaining capability; and

a third processing unit, configured to: fill, in the third set,determined capability information that is in capability informationcorresponding to each carrier and that meets the first condition, andreport the capability information, where if the second set cannotaccommodate the remaining capability, the third processing unit isfurther configured to: fill the remaining capability in the third setaccording to a format of the third set, and report the remainingcapability.

In another embodiment, the processing module 701 is specificallyconfigured to: fill, in the third set according to a format of the thirdset, the determined capability information corresponding to eachcarrier, and report the capability information to the base station, sothat the base station generates the first set and/or the second setaccording to the third set, and reports the third set together with thefirst set and/or the second set to a mobility management entity MME.

As shown in FIG. 8, this embodiment of the present invention provides acarrier aggregation capability reporting apparatus, and the apparatusincludes:

a processor 801, configured to determine capability informationcorresponding to each carrier in a carrier combination supported by userequipment UE in which the apparatus is located, where the capabilityinformation includes a multiple-input multiple-output MIMO capabilityand/or a channel state information CSI capability; and

a transceiver 802, configured to report the capability information thatis corresponding to each carrier and that is determined by the processor801 to a base station.

Optionally, the apparatus further includes:

a memory 803, configured to store a sequence number predefined by thememory 803 and the base station, where each predefined sequence numberindicates a set including capability information corresponding to eachcarrier in the carrier combination.

When reporting the capability information that is corresponding to eachcarrier and that is determined by the processor 801 to the base station,the transceiver 802 is specifically configured to:

report the capability information that is corresponding to each carrierand that is determined by the processor 801 to the base stationaccording to the sequence number stored in the memory 803.

Optionally, the sequence number that is predefined by the memory 803 andthe base station and that is stored in the memory 803 is included in asame list, and the list includes all sets including capabilityinformation corresponding to each carrier in the carrier combination; or

the sequence number that is predefined by the memory 803 and the basestation and that is stored in the memory 803 is included in lists whosequantity is the same as a frequency band quantity of the carriercombination, and each list includes all sets including capabilityinformation corresponding to each carrier on a same frequency band.

Optionally, the processor 801 is further configured to:

separately set, to a first value, a bit of a sequence numbercorresponding to a set including capability information that iscorresponding to each carrier and that is supported by the UE, and set,to a second value, a bit of a sequence number corresponding to a setincluding capability information that is corresponding to each carrierand that is not supported by the UE.

When reporting the capability information that is corresponding to eachcarrier and that is determined by the processor 801 to the base stationaccording to the sequence number stored in the memory 803, thetransceiver 802 is specifically configured to:

report bits that are set by the processor 801 to the base stationaccording to a sequence of sequence numbers corresponding to the bits.

Optionally, when reporting the capability information that iscorresponding to each carrier and that is determined by the processor801 to the base station according to the sequence number stored in thememory 803, the transceiver 802 is specifically configured to:

report, to the base station, a sequence number corresponding to a setincluding capability information that is corresponding to each carrierand that is supported by the UE and determined by the processor 801.

Optionally, the transceiver 802 is further configured to:

receive carrier range information sent by the base station, where thecarrier range information is used for instructing the transceiver 802 toreport the capability information corresponding to the carrier to thebase station, and the carrier range information includes at least onetype of the following information:

an aggregation carrier bandwidth range, an aggregation carrier type, oran aggregation carrier quantity range.

Optionally, before receiving the carrier range information sent by thebase station, the transceiver 802 is further configured to:

report information about a maximum carrier aggregation capabilitysupported by the UE to the base station, where the information about themaximum carrier aggregation capability is used by the base station tosend the carrier range information to the transceiver 802.

In an embodiment, the transceiver 802 is further configured to receive acapability reporting request sent by the base station, and thecapability reporting request includes a first instruction.

The processor 801 is further configured to: report, according to thefirst instruction by using a third set, determined capabilityinformation that is in capability information corresponding to eachsupported carrier combination and that meets a first condition, and thefirst condition includes a carrier combination whose UE carriercapability is within a preset range and/or a carrier combination whosefrequency band is an unlicensed frequency band. The third set is a setdifferent from a first set and a second set.

In an embodiment, the processor 801 is specifically configured to: fill,in a first set, determined capability information that is in capabilityinformation corresponding to each supported carrier combination and thatdoes not meet a first condition, and report the capability information;if the capability information that does not meet the first conditionexceeds a maximum quantity of the first set, fill, in a third set,remaining capability information that does not meet the first set, andreport the remaining capability information; and fill, in the third set,determined capability information that is in capability informationcorresponding to each carrier and that meets the first condition, andreport the capability information.

In an embodiment, the capability reporting request further carries anindication of a frequency band range that needs to be reported. Theprocessor 801 is configured to: fill, in a first set, capabilityinformation that is in the capability information corresponding to thefrequency band range and that does not meet a first condition, andreport the capability information; if the first set cannot accommodatethe capability information, fill a remaining capability in a second set,and report the remaining capability; if the second set cannotaccommodate the remaining capability, fill the remaining capability in athird set according to a format of the third set, and report theremaining capabilities; and fill, in the third set, determinedcapability information that is in capability information correspondingto each carrier and that meets the first condition, and report thecapability information.

In another embodiment, the processor 801 is specifically configured to:fill, in a third set according to a format of the third set, thedetermined capability information corresponding to each carrier, andreport the capability information to the base station, so that the basestation generates a first set and/or a second set according to the thirdset, and reports the third set together with the first set and/or thesecond set to a mobility management entity MME.

In this embodiment, the user equipment UE reports the determinedcapability information corresponding to each carrier in the carriercombination to the base station, so that the base station can thoroughlylearn the capability information corresponding to each carrier in thecarrier combination supported by the UE. By means of predefiningperformed by the UE and the base station, content of capabilityinformation that is corresponding to a carrier and that is reported bythe UE to the base station is simplified, so that reporting signalingoverheads are reduced. The UE reports, according to the carrier rangeinformation sent by the base station, the capability informationcorresponding to the carrier to the base station, and the UE does notneed to report capability information corresponding to all carrierssupported by the UE to the base station, so that reporting signalingwaste is avoided.

Embodiment 3

As shown in FIG. 9, this embodiment of the present invention provides acarrier measurement method, and the method is executed by UE andincludes the following steps:

S901. The user equipment UE reports, to a base station, indicationinformation used to indicate that the UE supports parallel measurementperformed in a measurement gap on inter-frequencies of a carrier incarrier aggregation supported by the UE.

S902. The UE receives measurement configuration information of theinter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregation supported bythe UE and that is sent by the base station according to the indicationinformation.

S903. The UE parallelly measures, in the measurement gap according tothe received measurement configuration information, theinter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregation supported bythe UE.

Before the UE performs a measurement task, the base station sends ameasurement control message to the UE. The measurement control messageincludes information such as a measurement identifier, a measurementobject, and report configuration. The measurement identifier is used toidentify measurement control information. The measurement object mayinclude a center frequency of a carrier (that is, an absolute radiofrequency channel number (Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number,ARFCN)), a neighboring cell list of the carrier, and the like. Thereport configuration may include an event trigger reporting condition,an event trigger reporting period, and the like. The measurement objectand the report configuration are used by the UE to perform themeasurement task. The UE generates a measurement report according to ameasurement result of the measurement task, and sends the measurementreport to the base station.

The measurement task of the UE is classified into intra-frequencymeasurement and inter-frequency measurement according to differentcarriers on which measurement objects of the UE are located. Ameasurement task in which a carrier of a measurement object is the sameas a carrier on which a serving cell of the UE is located is referred toas the intra-frequency measurement. A measurement task in which acarrier of a measurement object is different from a carrier on which aserving cell of the UE is located is referred to as the inter-frequencymeasurement. The carrier on which the serving cell of the UE is locatedmay be considered as a center frequency at which the UE communicateswith the serving cell. An inter-frequency measurement task does notinclude a measurement task in an evolved packet core network (EPC forshort), for example, a measurement task in which a measurement object isa Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS for short).

For the intra-frequency measurement, the UE may directly performmeasurement, and the base station does not need to configure ameasurement gap (measurement gap) for the UE. For the inter-frequencymeasurement, the base station needs to configure a measurement gap forthe UE. The measurement gap is a time interval. In the time interval,the base station does not schedule the UE, and the UE temporarilyinterrupts the communication with the serving cell, so that the UEperforms an inter-frequency measurement task. The base stationdetermines, according to capability information reported by the UE,whether there is a need to configure the measurement gap for the UE. Thebase station may configure the measurement gap for the UE by using aradio resource control (RRC for short) reconfiguration message. Forexample, the capability information of the UE is shown in Table 7. Whenthe UE operates on a frequency band X1, the base station needs toconfigure a measurement gap for the UE when the UE measures a frequencyband Y1. When the UE operates on a frequency band (X2+X3), the basestation does not need to configure a measurement gap for the UE when theUE measures a frequency band Y2.

TABLE 10 Whether Operating Measurement a gap is band band required X1 Y1Yes X2 + X3 Y2 No

In this embodiment, the UE reports, to the base station, the indicationinformation used to indicate that the UE supports the parallelmeasurement performed in the measurement gap on the inter-frequencies ofthe carrier in the carrier aggregation supported by the UE. After the UEreports a carrier aggregation capability to the base station, the basestation determines the measurement configuration information of theinter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregation of the UEaccording to the indication information and the carrier aggregationcapability of the UE, then sends the measurement configurationinformation to the UE, and configures the measurement gap for the UE.The UE parallelly measures the inter-frequencies of the carrier in thecarrier aggregation in the measurement gap according to the measurementconfiguration information. The measurement configuration informationincludes information about the inter-frequencies of the carrier in thecarrier aggregation supported by the UE.

In this embodiment, optionally, the UE receives an RRC reconfigurationmessage sent by the base station, and the RRC reconfiguration messagecarries the measurement configuration information that is sent by thebase station according to the indication information and that is of theinter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregation.

For example, as shown in FIG. 10, the UE supports a carrier combinationBand A+Band B (1+8), a frequency band A (Band A) includes one frequency,and a frequency band B (Band B) includes eight frequencies. After the UEreports, to the base station, the indication information used toindicate that the UE supports parallel measurement performed on theinter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregation, the basestation learns that the UE supports parallel measurement performed onthe inter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregation. Themeasurement configuration information configured by the base station forthe UE may include at most all frequencies in the carrier combinationsupported by the UE. That is, the measurement configuration informationconfigured by the base station for the UE includes at most the onefrequency on the frequency band A and the eight frequencies on the BandB. After receiving the measurement configuration information, the UE mayparallelly measure, in the measurement gap configured by the basestation for the UE, the inter-frequencies that are of the carrier in thecarrier aggregation and that are included in the measurementconfiguration information.

As shown in FIG. 11, this embodiment of the present invention provides acarrier measurement apparatus, and the apparatus includes:

a transceiver module 1101, configured to: report indication informationto a base station, where the indication information is used to indicatethat user equipment UE in which the apparatus is located supportsparallel measurement performed in a measurement gap on inter-frequenciesof a carrier in carrier aggregation supported by the UE; and receivemeasurement configuration information that is sent by the base stationaccording to the indication information and that includes theinter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregation supported bythe UE; and

a processing module 1102, configured to parallelly measure, in themeasurement gap according to the measurement configuration informationreceived by the transceiver module 1101, the inter-frequencies of thecarrier in the carrier aggregation supported by the UE.

Optionally, when receiving the measurement configuration informationthat is sent by the base station according to the indication informationand that includes the inter-frequencies of the carrier within thecarrier aggregation range supported by the UE, the transceiver module1101 is specifically configured to:

receive a radio resource control RRC reconfiguration message sent by thebase station, where the RRC reconfiguration message carries themeasurement configuration information that is sent by the base stationaccording to the indication information and that is of theinter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregation supported bythe UE.

As shown in FIG. 12, this embodiment of the present invention provides acarrier measurement apparatus, and the apparatus includes:

a transceiver 1201, configured to: report indication information to abase station, where the indication information is used to indicate thatuser equipment UE in which the apparatus is located supports parallelmeasurement performed in a measurement gap on inter-frequencies of acarrier in carrier aggregation supported by the UE; and receivemeasurement configuration information that is sent by the base stationaccording to the indication information and that includes theinter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregation supported bythe UE; and

a processor 1202, configured to parallelly measure, in the measurementgap according to the measurement configuration information received bythe transceiver 1201, the inter-frequencies of the carrier in thecarrier aggregation supported by the UE.

Optionally, when receiving the measurement configuration informationthat is sent by the base station according to the indication informationand that includes the inter-frequencies of the carrier within thecarrier aggregation range supported by the UE, the transceiver 1201 isspecifically configured to:

receive a radio resource control RRC reconfiguration message sent by thebase station, where the RRC reconfiguration message carries themeasurement configuration information that is sent by the base stationaccording to the indication information and that is of theinter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregation supported bythe UE.

As shown in FIG. 13, this embodiment of the present invention provides acarrier measurement method. The method is executed by a base station,and the method includes the following steps:

S1301. The base station receives indication information reported by userequipment UE for indicating that the UE supports parallel measurementperformed in a measurement gap on inter-frequencies of a carrier incarrier aggregation supported by the UE.

S1302. The base station determines, according to the indicationinformation, measurement configuration information of theinter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregation supported bythe UE.

S1303. The base station sends the measurement configuration informationto the UE.

In this embodiment, the base station receives the indication informationsent by the UE for indicating that the UE supports the parallelmeasurement performed in the measurement gap on the inter-frequencies ofthe carrier in the carrier aggregation. After receiving a carrieraggregation capability reported by the UE, the base station determinesthe measurement configuration information of the inter-frequencies ofthe carrier in the carrier aggregation of the UE according to theindication information and the carrier aggregation capability supportedby the UE, and sends the measurement configuration information to theUE. Further, the UE parallelly measures the inter-frequencies of thecarrier in the carrier aggregation in the measurement gap according tothe measurement configuration information. The measurement configurationinformation includes information about the inter-frequencies of thecarrier in the carrier aggregation.

In this embodiment, optionally, the base station sends a radio resourcecontrol RRC reconfiguration message to the UE, and the RRCreconfiguration message carries the measurement configurationinformation that is sent by the base station according to the indicationinformation and that is of the inter-frequencies of the carrier in thecarrier aggregation.

As shown in FIG. 14, this embodiment of the present invention provides acarrier measurement apparatus, and the apparatus includes:

a transceiver module 1401, configured to receive indication informationreported by user equipment UE, where the indication information is usedto indicate that the UE supports parallel measurement performed in ameasurement gap on inter-frequencies of a carrier in carrier aggregationsupported by the UE; and

a processing module 1402, configured to determine, according to theindication information received by the transceiver module 1401,measurement configuration information of the inter-frequencies of thecarrier in the carrier aggregation supported by the UE.

The transceiver module 1401 is further configured to send themeasurement configuration information determined by the processingmodule 1402 to the UE.

Optionally, when sending the measurement configuration informationdetermined by the processing module 1402 to the UE, the transceivermodule 1401 is specifically configured to:

send a radio resource control RRC reconfiguration message to the UE,where the RRC reconfiguration message carries the measurementconfiguration information.

As shown in FIG. 15, this embodiment of the present invention provides acarrier measurement apparatus, and the apparatus includes:

a transceiver 1501, configured to receive indication informationreported by user equipment UE, where the indication information is usedto indicate that the UE supports parallel measurement performed in ameasurement gap on inter-frequencies of a carrier in carrier aggregationsupported by the UE; and

a processor 1502, configured to determine, according to the indicationinformation received by the transceiver 1501, measurement configurationinformation of the inter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrieraggregation supported by the UE.

The transceiver 1501 is further configured to send the measurementconfiguration information determined by the processor 1502 to the UE.

Optionally, when sending the measurement configuration informationdetermined by the processor 1502 to the UE, the transceiver 1501 isspecifically configured to:

send a radio resource control RRC reconfiguration message to the UE,where the RRC reconfiguration message carries the measurementconfiguration information.

In this embodiment, the UE sends, to the base station, the indicationinformation used to indicate that the UE supports the parallelmeasurement performed on the inter-frequencies of the carrier in thecarrier aggregation. The base station determines the measurementconfiguration information of the inter-frequencies of the carrier in thecarrier aggregation of the UE according to the indication information,and then the base station sends the measurement configurationinformation to the UE. The UE parallelly measures the inter-frequenciesof the carrier in the carrier aggregation in the measurement gapaccording to the measurement configuration information. The measurementconfiguration information includes the information about theinter-frequencies of the carrier in the carrier aggregation. Therefore,the UE can parallelly measure all inter-frequencies in the carrieraggregation supported by the UE, so as to prevent the UE from parallellymeasuring, in an existing measurement mechanism, only threeinter-frequencies in the carrier aggregation supported by the UE.According to the technical method in this embodiment, a quantity ofinter-frequencies that are in the carrier aggregation supported by theUE and that are parallelly measured by the UE can be increased.

Persons skilled in the art should understand that the embodiments of thepresent invention may be provided as a method, a system, or a computerprogram product. Therefore, the present invention may use a form ofhardware only embodiments, software only embodiments, or embodimentswith a combination of software and hardware. Moreover, the presentinvention may use a form of a computer program product that isimplemented on one or more computer-usable storage media (including butnot limited to a disk memory, a CD-ROM, an optical memory, and the like)that include computer-usable program code.

The present invention is described with reference to the flowchartsand/or block diagrams of the method, the device (system), and thecomputer program product according to the embodiments of the presentinvention. It should be understood that computer program instructionsmay be used to implement each process and/or each block in theflowcharts and/or the block diagrams and a combination of a processand/or a block in the flowcharts and/or the block diagrams. Thesecomputer program instructions may be provided for a general-purposecomputer, a dedicated computer, an embedded processor, or a processor ofany other programmable data processing device to generate a machine, sothat the instructions executed by a computer or a processor of any otherprogrammable data processing device generate an apparatus forimplementing a specific function in one or more processes in theflowcharts and/or in one or more blocks in the block diagrams.

These computer program instructions may be stored in a computer readablememory that can instruct the computer or any other programmable dataprocessing device to work in a specific manner, so that the instructionsstored in the computer readable memory generate an artifact thatincludes an instruction apparatus. The instruction apparatus implementsa specific function in one or more processes in the flowcharts and/or inone or more blocks in the block diagrams.

These computer program instructions may be loaded onto a computer oranother programmable data processing device, so that a series ofoperations and steps are performed on the computer or the anotherprogrammable device, thereby generating computer-implemented processing.Therefore, the instructions executed on the computer or the anotherprogrammable device provide steps for implementing a specific functionin one or more processes in the flowcharts and/or in one or more blocksin the block diagrams.

Although some preferred embodiments of the present invention have beendescribed, persons skilled in the art can make changes and modificationsto these embodiments once they learn the basic inventive concept.Therefore, the following claims are intended to be construed as to coverthe preferred embodiments and all changes and modifications fallingwithin the scope of the present invention.

Obviously, persons skilled in the art can make various modifications andvariations to the embodiments of the present invention without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present invention.The present invention is intended to cover these modifications andvariations provided that they fall within the scope of protectiondefined by the following claims and their equivalent technologies.

What is claimed is:
 1. A carrier aggregation capability reportingapparatus, comprising: a transceiver, configured to receive carrierrange information sent by the base station, wherein the carrier rangeinformation is used for instructing to report the capability informationcorresponding to the carrier to the base station, and the carrier rangeinformation comprises at least one type of the following information: anaggregation carrier bandwidth range, an aggregation carrier type, or anaggregation carrier quantity range; and a processor, configured todetermine capability information corresponding to carrier indicated bythe carrier range information, wherein the capability informationcomprises a multiple-input multiple-output MIMO capability and/or achannel state information CSI capability; wherein the transceiver, isconfigured to report the capability information that is corresponding tothe carrier indicated by the carrier range information.
 2. The apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein the carrier range information is carriedwhen the transceiver module report the capability information.
 3. Theapparatus according to claim 2, wherein before receiving the carrierrange information sent by the base station, the transceiver is furtherconfigured to: report information about a maximum carrier aggregationcapability supported by the UE to the base station, wherein theinformation about the maximum carrier aggregation capability is used bythe base station to send the carrier range information to thetransceiver.
 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein thetransceiver is further configured to receive a capability reportingrequest sent by the base station, wherein the capability reportingrequest comprises a first instruction; and the processor is furtherconfigured to: report, according to the first instruction by using athird set, determined capability information that is in capabilityinformation corresponding to each supported carrier combination and thatmeets a first condition, wherein the first condition comprises a carriercombination whose UE carrier capability is within a preset range and/ora carrier combination whose frequency band is an unlicensed frequencyband, and the third set is a set different from a first set and a secondset.
 5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processor isspecifically configured to: fill, in a first set, determined capabilityinformation that is in capability information corresponding to eachsupported carrier combination and that does not meet a first condition,and report the capability information; if the capability informationthat does not meet the first condition exceeds a maximum capacity of thefirst set, fill, in a third set, remaining capability information thatdoes not meet the first set, and report the remaining capabilityinformation; and fill, in the third set, the determined information thatis in the capability corresponding to each supported carrier combinationand that meets the first condition, and report the capabilityinformation.
 6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein thecapability reporting request further carries an indication of afrequency band range that needs to be reported, and the processor isconfigured to: fill, in a first set, capability information that is incapability information corresponding to the frequency band range andthat does not meet a first condition, and report the capabilityinformation; if the first set cannot accommodate the capabilityinformation, fill a remaining capability in a second set, and report theremaining capability; if the second set cannot accommodate the remainingcapability, fill the remaining capability in a third set according to aformat of the third set, and report the remaining capability; and fill,in the third set, the determined information that is in the capabilitycorresponding to each supported carrier combination and that meets thefirst condition, and report the capability information.
 7. The apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein the processor is specifically configuredto: fill, in a third set according to a format of the third set, thedetermined capability information corresponding to each carrier, andreport the capability information to the base station, so that the basestation generates a first set and/or a second set according to the thirdset, and reports the third set together with the first set and/or thesecond set to a mobility management entity MME.
 8. A carrier aggregationcapability reporting method, comprising: receiving carrier rangeinformation sent by the base station, wherein the carrier rangeinformation is used for instructing to report the capability informationcorresponding to the carrier to the base station, and the carrier rangeinformation comprises at least one type of the following information: anaggregation carrier bandwidth range, an aggregation carrier type, or anaggregation carrier quantity range; determining, by user equipment UE,capability information corresponding to carrier indicated by the carrierrange information, wherein the capability information comprises amultiple-input multiple-output MIMO capability and/or a channel stateinformation CSI capability; and reporting, by the UE to a base station,the determined capability information corresponding to the carrierindicated by the carrier range information.
 9. The method according toclaim 8, wherein the carrier range information is carried when reportingthe capability information.
 10. The method according to claim 9, whereinbefore the receiving, by the UE, carrier range information sent by thebase station, the method further comprises: reporting, by the UE,information about a maximum carrier aggregation capability supported bythe UE to the base station, wherein the information about the maximumcarrier aggregation capability is used by the base station to send thecarrier range information to the UE.
 11. The method according to claim8, further comprising: receiving a capability reporting request sent bythe base station, wherein the capability reporting request comprises afirst instruction; and reporting, by the UE according to the firstinstruction by using a third set, determined capability information thatis in capability information corresponding to each supported carriercombination and that meets a first condition, wherein the firstcondition comprises a carrier combination whose UE carrier capability iswithin a preset range and/or a carrier combination whose frequency bandis an unlicensed frequency band, and the third set is a set differentfrom a first set and a second set.
 12. The method according to claim 11,wherein the reporting, by the UE according to the first instruction byusing a third set, determined capability information that is incapability information corresponding to each supported carriercombination and that meets a first condition comprises: filling, by theUE in the first set, determined capability information that is in thecapability information corresponding to each supported carriercombination and that does not meet the first condition, and report thecapability information; if the capability information that does not meetthe first condition exceeds a maximum capacity of the first set,filling, in the third set, remaining capability information that doesnot meet the first set, and reporting the remaining capabilityinformation; and filling, by the UE in the third set, the determinedinformation that is in the capability corresponding to each supportedcarrier combination and that meets the first condition, and reportingthe capability information.
 13. The method according to claim 11,wherein the capability reporting request further carries an indicationof a frequency band range that needs to be reported, and the reporting,by the UE according to the first instruction by using a third set,determined capability information that is in capability informationcorresponding to each supported carrier combination and that meets afirst condition comprises: first filling, by the UE in the first set,capability information that is in capability information correspondingto the frequency band range and that does not meet the first condition,and reporting the capability information; if the first set cannotaccommodate the capability information, filling a remaining capabilityin the second set, and reporting the remaining capability; and if thesecond set cannot accommodate the remaining capability, filling theremaining capability in the third set according to a format of the thirdset, and reporting the remaining capability; and filling, by the UE inthe third set, the determined information that is in the capabilitycorresponding to each supported carrier combination and that meets thefirst condition, and reporting the capability information.
 14. Themethod according to claim 11, wherein the reporting, by the UE accordingto the first instruction by using a third set, determined capabilityinformation that is in capability information corresponding to eachsupported carrier combination and that meets a first conditioncomprises: filling, by the UE in the third set according to a format ofthe third set, the determined capability information corresponding toeach carrier, and reporting the capability information to the basestation, so that the base station generates the first set and/or thesecond set according to the third set, and reports the third settogether with the first set and/or the second set to a mobilitymanagement entity MME.
 15. A carrier aggregation capability reportingmethod, comprising: sending, by a base station, carrier rangeinformation to a user equipment, wherein the carrier range informationis used for instructing the user equipment to report the capabilityinformation corresponding to the carrier to the base station, and thecarrier range information comprises at least one type of the followinginformation: an aggregation carrier bandwidth range, an aggregationcarrier type, or an aggregation carrier quantity range; receiving, bythe base station, the capability information that is corresponding tothe carrier indicated by the carrier range information.
 16. The methodaccording to claim 15, wherein the capability information includes thecarrier range information.
 17. The method according to claim 15, furthercomprising: receiving, from the UE, information about a maximum carrieraggregation capability supported by the UE, and determining to sendingthe carrier range information according to the information about themaximum carrier aggregation capability.
 18. The method according toclaim 15, further comprising: sending, a capability reporting request tothe UE, wherein the capability reporting request comprises a firstinstruction; and receiving, determined capability information that is incapability information corresponding to each supported carriercombination and that meets a first condition, wherein the firstcondition comprises a carrier combination whose UE carrier capability iswithin a preset range and/or a carrier combination whose frequency bandis an unlicensed frequency band, and the third set is a set differentfrom a first set and a second set.
 19. A computer-readable storagemedium having a program recorded thereon; wherein the program makes acomputer execute: receiving carrier range information sent by the basestation, wherein the carrier range information is used for instructingto report the capability information corresponding to the carrier to thebase station, and the carrier range information comprises at least onetype of the following information: an aggregation carrier bandwidthrange, an aggregation carrier type, or an aggregation carrier quantityrange; determining, by user equipment UE, capability informationcorresponding to carrier indicated by the carrier range information,wherein the capability information comprises a multiple-inputmultiple-output MIMO capability and/or a channel state information CSIcapability; and reporting, by the UE to a base station, the determinedcapability information corresponding to the carrier indicated by thecarrier range information.